Imagine willingly telling strangers on the Internet your deepest, darkest secrets and letting them give you an assignment that you have to complete to protect your secret — that’s what Tabitha decides to do in Corey Ann Haydu’s Life by Committee. Tabby feels like her life is falling apart after her best friends abandon her and she kisses someone else’s boyfriend, a boy that she’s been flirting with online for months. When she’s given a used copy of The Secret Garden filled with someone’s thoughts on the book and a website link handwritten in the back everything changes. Intrigued by the website, “Life by Committee,” and frustrated with how things are going in her life, Tabby decides to join the group, which requires members to provide one secret a week and then perform a task to keep the secret safe.

As Tabby joins the website, she’s pushed outside her comfort zone again and again by group members as she reveals more secrets. As time goes on, she begins pushing away her only remaining friend and her parents as she becomes wrapped up in the website and the assignments they give her. Only when the assignments begin to go too far does Tabby begin to question her choices.

Haydu’s Life by Committee is a strong second book after her memorable debut novel OCD Love Story. Again Haydu has written about a character who is flawed, and all the more interesting because of it. Tabby makes some cringe-worthy choices and many mistakes throughout Life by Committee, making her a realistic, relatable character. Readers who enjoy Haydu’s books can look forward to two new titles set to be released in 2015.